Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The XX: Chained

The XX live/ Photo: Last.fm

Oof, do I have a feeling that this new XX album will be a doozy.

Between the ethereal "Angels" and now the lofty reflectiveness of "Chained" - a melodic short leak from their long-awaited new album - I have every bit of confidence that critical acclaim is back on the horizon for the mysterious Brit indie rockers. "We used to get closer than this, is it something you miss?" lady lead Romy Madley-Croft and her male counterpart Oliver Sim dually question over a skittering beat and spastic, ghostly keyboard - before a tiny climbing guitar riff interrupts the calm flow.

Now, most of the blogosphere seems to agree that there are hopes of something equally as time-stopping as the singles off xx - but I tend to disagree that the first two tastes aren't yet doing the trick. Personally, I feel equally as dreamy and sedated hearing "Angels" and "Chains" as I did the first time I was haunted by "Intro" or "Crystallized" - and like I've said before, I'm still convinced the band is holding back their new conceptual genius until the full-length hits shelves.